Obama Blagojevich Scandal Involvement Believed By 45% Of Voters: Poll

Blogger Matt Yglesias has been in Finland lately, studying up on their education policy, but all it took was a single viewing of Morning Joe to bring him up to speed with the new way the political press corps has been abusing their platform:

[T]his morning on MSNBC there was a lengthy discussion of Obama's involvement in Blagojevich's corruption. Of course, there was no evidence of any involvement on Obama's part. Nor, despite this being a news channel, was there any original reporting of any kind whatsoever. There was, however, a ton of time spent criticizing the Obama campaign's PR strategy with regard to this issue -- the suggestion being that had Obama adopted a better PR strategy, then people wouldn't be on television making evidence-free guilt-by-association accusations against him.

This strong me as odd. The people making the accusations kept acknowledging that they had no evidence. One might think that communicating to television personalities the fact that there was no evidence of wrongdoing on Obama's part would constitute a good PR strategy. Given that they knew there was no evidence of wrongdoing, they should have ceased implying that there was wrongdoing. But they didn't do that at all. Not, I would submit, because of any failings on Obama's part, but because Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, John Heileman, Mark Halperin, and Pat Buchanan don't care at all about the accuracy of the impression their coverage gives.

I really can't sum up the past week of coverage any better. What I can do, however, is relate the effects of this coverage. Via Rasmussen Reports:

Forty five percent (45%) of U.S. voters say it is likely President-elect Obama or one of his top campaign aides was involved in the unfolding Blagojevich scandal in Illinois, including 23% who say it is Very Likely.

Just 11% say it is not at all likely, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey taken Thursday and Friday nights.

A key finding, by the way? "Voters nationally are more skeptical than those in Illinois."

What can I say? THE SYSTEM WORKS.

Comments

[StillIRise]

Keith just showed a poll in which 51% of those polled think that Obama has sufficiently answered all of the questions put to him about the Blagojevich affair. Only 37% did not. However, in spite of these or other poll numbers, he still enjoys a 75% approval overall.

[vjoseph]

Yeah, that is why I am confused about this poll. How can you say that there are 45% who believes he was involved?!

[microcosm]

Fox won the Florida Appeals Case that ok'd lying to the public in news reporting. "check!"
http://FixNewsNow.org - Democracy needs responsible journalism, free press, accountability in the media - Take a stand folks. "checkmate!"

[AprilPA]

Must be the same 45% who supported McCain/Palin.

We will have to hear more Obama smearing for the next eight years from the neocon right wing of the GOP and the right-wing media (Fox News, Rush).

[genia]

I'd like to thank you for this ......It's not just the right wing media sensationalizing this...and just about anything else Obama.
we need to point out the silliness and stupidity of the media ...every chance we get....bec­ause....th­ey sure don't seem to get it.
So..I say..let's help them !!!!!

[army193]

Calickizzle name your source on Joe Scarborough please.....

[Fraugher]

The same percentage voted in Bush in 2000, and voted for 4 more years of Bush in 2008... should we be surprised?

[Fraugher]

NPR news was doing this tonight too, made me want to puke, was definitely suggesting that there is a scandal here and they need to get to the bottom of it... so intellectually dishonest. Then they did a piece on shopping for the holidays that culminated in "so tell me (so-and-so), what is it this year that we all don't know we NEED yet." Give me a break, wake up and smell the coffee, do you have editors out there???

Maybe the bored media needs to fan up another Iraq... or better yet, go bankrupt.

[Thefamilyvan]

That story is called "juicy news with no substance". Rasmussen is one of the most conservative polling organizations one can choose. So, I dismiss this story as sensationalism. Just by being a politician, Sen. Obama has to greet Gov. Blago somehow in the course of doing business, but the business does not have to be shady. Obama keeps himself out of dirty politics, much to the dismay of others. Keep lookin', cause you won't find anything on this guy!

[MESGAIN26]

Still, Obama’s transition approval rating has risen from 67 percent three weeks ago, indicating that the Blagojevich scandal hasn’t damaged the president-elect. So does the fact that 67 percent see Obama as honest and trustworthy – slightly better than his rating for honesty back in October, long before “Blagojevich” was pronounceable by news anchors ,PARTISANS – Majorities across the partisan spectrum approve of Obama’s handling of the transition – a near-unanimous 91 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of independents and even 59 percent of Republicans (POOR ) REPUBLICANS KEEP WHINING IT WILL FEW OF YOU LEFT YET !

[YunekFlava]

The media's mission should be getting to the bottom of: why they won't report on and print real news. Like how people are barely surviving thru this massive financial meltdown, lack of decent health care coverage, care for our military men and women and their families, housing and job loses. The media should be reporting on the emotional state of this nation, and how we really feel about where we are. They will be judged, shorlty on what they haven't done and the real news they let get by in lieu of CRAP.

The reason why so many newspapers are going out of business and networks are laying off hundreds, is because they are no longer reporting news. News agencies are just entertainment shows and pages of words and made-up faces of vendetta reaching people who have either lost sight of what news reporting is, or never knew it.

Ratings are not tied into quality, just look at FOX, they are CableNews giants. Ratings are tied into who can shout the loudest, who can talk over their guests, who's more opinonated, who's sexier, who can be more selacious and who can play hardball. Most of these pundits are absolute kooks, and couldn't cut it except talking about NOTHING. Google 'ole boy Buchannan, now that's news.

I still think journalism is a noble profession, it's just tainted with spoils of man, like everything else.

[kaku3]

My sentiments exactly.
We should be complaining about the news media about not reporting real news, like the economy. Every time I change my channel to a news station its all about Blagojevich, nothing about the Energy appointments today or the auto bailout. We as Americans deserve better journalism than this. This is an insult to all of us Americans who care about the real issues facing this country today.

[Cinnamonape]

Americans are remarkably willing to accept what the media or other people "in authority" tell them, and terribly poor at critical thinking. They can't determine evidence from opinion, hope from reality.

The numbers above aren't so different from what the Harris poll says with regards to Americans belief in a variety of supernatural things...ghosts (44%), creationism (40%), UFOs (36%), witches (31%), astrology (31%), and reincarnation (24%).
.
Large majorities of the public believe in miracles (75%), heaven (73%), angels (71%), that Jesus is God or the Son of God (71%), the resurrection of Jesus (70%), the survival of the soul after death (68%), hell (62%), the Virgin birth (Jesus born of Mary (61%) and the devil (59%). The higher the level of church attendence, the higher the level people believe in any of the above.

[MESGAIN26]

THATS FUNNY BECAUSE IN A ABC POLL ,51 percent in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll say Obama’s done enough to explain any discussions his representatives may have had with Gov. Rod Blagojevich http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenumbers/2008/12/obama-the-trans.html

[diogeron]

It doesn't matter. It's a snapshot in time and in a year, nobody will be asking Obama about this issue. The fact that there are a lot of uninformed or misinformed people in this society is not even newsworthy.

[solid]

It's newsworthy when they elect dillweeds like Bush into office.

[karinova]

Not to disparage Rasmssen Reports in particular, but polls, especially of this type, are often (usually?) total crap. The sample populations they use are inadequate, the questions are weird, and they exploit the fact that you (the reader) assume they make a point to avoid bias.

I say this not because I don't like these particular results. I say this because these people aren't scientists. They have little to no incentive to BE scientific. In fact, they've got strong financial reasons NOT to be.

The one totally positive thing I can say is that for once, the reported findings from the poll used the EXACT same language as the poll itself. (That is, they didn't ask people whether they liked apples, and then issue a report concluding that x% of people hate oranges.) But, gosh. Not only is 1000 a laughably small sample to represent all US voters, but what does "likely voter" even mean? Rasmussen has a definition, but they don't give it. For that matter, what does "nationwide" mean? You'd think you know, but you may not!

For all we know, they called old folks' homes in WV and ID and called it nationwide.

[whatthel]

The MSM never lets the truth get in the way of a good story.

[PazPraSempre]

Who are these people getting polled?
That's why i never trusted the polls during the election. I've never been polled./ I don't know anyone who's been polled either.